It was my lovely sister-in-law Jessi's idea--she is an avid cyclist (is that a fair description?!?) and also babysits the kid of a guy (coincidentally a high-school classmate of mine) who has MS--but a modest number of Davidsons and Davidson family affiliates are going to do the MS City to Shore Bike Tour on September 29 to raise money for research and to support programs for people living with multiple sclerosis.
We will do the forty-five mile ride from Hammonton to Ocean City, New Jersey, and we each need to raise $250 to participate. I am fully ready just to donate it myself, I hate asking for money, but if you happen to feel that it's a good cause and you can spare $5 or $10, then I would be very grateful for your sponsorship!
Here's where you can donate money to the National MS Society (that link should take you to my donation page, but if not, type in Jenny Davidson and just make sure that you get my page and not the page of the inevitable other Jenny Davidson); and I promise I will write up a good description (with pictures!) of the day of the ride.
I am excited, of course, to have a cycling goal to train for. I went to a very good repair clinic yesterday at Sid's Bikes, I feel considerably more confident in my ability to deal with potential problems (it is also rather illuminating to watch someone put one of these bikes through the different gears while it's sitting up at eye level on a stand, much clearer to understand what's going on). But it will also be a good family day out, very salubrious!
(Oh, a funny memory: in the 1970s, a lot of children's books--those Laura Ingalls Wilder ones, I feel sure, but all sorts of others also--had a promotional page at the back for the MS Read-a-Thon. I always read this page longingly and covetously, and in fact I think at one point I even sent away the provided coupon for more information, though I do not remember ever getting it; because I did not understand that the way you raised money was to ask people to give it to you, I was maybe six years old--we were still living in Wilmington, Delaware--and thought that the money somehow was just magically raised by reading the books! I thought I would be the perfect person to do it because I read so many books and that it would be an efficient way to take advantage of that fact!)
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As a person with MS I just wanted to say thank you.
ReplyDeleteIt's the least I can do, really. Nobody I'm close to has been hit with this terrible disease, but I always remember my mom talking to us when we were kids about Jacqueline du Pre and her illness--they had been musical children in musical London as more or less contemporaries, and that particular huge tragedy of her performance career being devastated by MS especially struck home.
ReplyDeleteI am a trained musician who was diagnosed with Secondary Progressive MS last year. I still can't listen to Jaqueline Du Pres (or any performance of the Elgar 'Cello concerto) without bursting into tears. However, life goes on and you smile through it.
ReplyDeleteI particularly want to say how good my local MS Society group has been in coming to terms with my condition and how understanding my employer has been considering I had been with them only 6 months when I had a major MS attack and was correctly diagnosed (I had an incorrect dignosis of CFS 3 years before and was subsequently made redundant on the back of that diagnosis) I'm a very lucky man to have such friends and employers; both + beta inteferon give me hope and strength.
I've since found out the complications from the condition (you can't catch it, it just happens) killed my Great Uncle 50 years ago, so thank goodness there are people in this world like you who do give a damn and want to help.
I experience prejudice against me almost every day as an obviously disabled person so people like yourself that give me hope and strength make a huge difference in my life.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Mark, for that lovely comment. It sounds like you were dealt a really tough hand and are playing it out with great courage and fortitude.
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